Is something with my driveshaft hinky? Or, are my research skills slipping?

[2nd.amnd]

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I've searched and haven't been able to find the answer to my question.

Bought an E30 last September for the princely sum of $500. Needed some work (obviously) and I've been spending the intervening months trying to restore it's mechanical solidity.

One obvious problem has been the dreaded banging from down under. I bought a new center support bearing and flex disc when I ordered some other parts. When I put the thing up on stands and slid underneath, I found that the whole exhaust system is welded together, stem to stern. When I started to apply some torque to the bolts that hold that mess onto the exhaust manifold, the whole car started to move. Fearing for my life, I decided that this was one thing I would leave to my mechanic when I took the car in for inspection.

This morning, when I dropped the car off, I gave the shop the flex disc and CSB to install. This afternoon, I got a call from the shop. They told me they dropped the exhaust system, and then reinstalled it after examining the driveshaft. The mechanic told me he wasn't sure if I had the right CSB and there is no flex disc at all in the shaft.

At the front of the shaft, where I thought there would be a flex disc, the mechanic assures me that there is a u-joint similar to the one in the rear. All of the parts diagrams for my car that I have looked at, clearly show the flex disc at the front of the shaft.

The car is a 1986 325e sedan with a ZF 4HP22 automatic transmission. The car was built in June of '86. Is this driveshaft right, or has someone substituted the shaft from a Toyota Corolla or a Chevy Citation or some other piece of junk in my car's past?

I really hope that someone here can enlighten me about this. If this is some kind of updated shaft that I'm not aware of, would the CSB still be the same?

Thanks a million in advance for any answers you can provide!

[bmwstudent]

I have not seen one but I have heard of the one piece automatic transmission driveshaft. Paging Jlevie, He will know.

[2nd.amnd]

Sweet! I knew someone here would know.

[jlevie]

I've never heard of a drive shaft of that configuration being used on an E30. Nor have I stumbled across a reference to it in the IPB. But in the 27 years since the car was built anything could have done to the car, including cobbling in some odd drive shaft.

In a sense, it doesn't matter. Just a guibo & CSB aren't going to fix the problem. Failure of the CSB (the cause of the banging) is almost always the result of bad u-joints in the drive shaft. The fix is replacement of the drive shaft with a new or reman unit.

[Wanganstyle]

I've never heard of a drive shaft of that configuration being used on an E30. Nor have I stumbled across a reference to it in the IPB. But in the 27 years since the car was built anything could have done to the car, including cobbling in some odd drive shaft.

In a sense, it doesn't matter. Just a guibo & CSB aren't going to fix the problem. Failure of the CSB (the cause of the banging) is almost always the result of bad u-joints in the drive shaft. The fix is replacement of the drive shaft with a new or reman unit.

Ive seen e34's in asia with jatco automatic and 4 bolt no guibo connection from transmission to driveshaft and 4 bolts from diff to driveshaft. Original genuine bmw driveshaft; no flexdisc and jatco asia only autobox

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

[2nd.amnd]

OK, so mebbe I need a new drive shaft. Damn!

This car keeps getting more and more expensive. As they say: "Nothing is more expensive than a cheap (insert premium European auto brand here)."

Perhaps they shouldn't be selling guibos and CSBs separate from drive shafts? I guess I need to get under there again and take a look. Who knows? Maybe this shaft will have replaceable u-joints? Maybe I will have accidentally found the holy grail of repairs for the E30 drive shaft?

Then again... probably not.

Thanks for all the replies guys.

[2nd.amnd]

Just thought I'd leave a little update to my situation in case anyone is interested.

I took the car to a BMW specialist and had him look underneath. My car does indeed have the rarest drive shaft in the world apparently.

The u-joints at the rear of the shaft and the middle are right where they are supposed to be. There is another u-joint at the front of the shaft and both ends of the shaft have four-bolt flanges. My mechanic found the part number on the shaft and it came from the factory that way he thinks. Part number of the weird shaft is 26111225717.

Now I guess I've got to find another. The mechanic couldn't find a used one in the US. You can order it from BMW, but the price is like $940. Guess I need to start doing some serious thinking about what I want to do... guess I'll have a guibo and CSB for sale soon also.

Just thought you guys might be interested in this strange turn of events.

PS On the bright side, the original CSB seems to be OK. The drive shaft, however, looks like it's shot.

[2nd.amnd]

Looks like what this outfit is calling a "type 2" driveshaft. http://www.driveshaftspecialist.com/...0html/BMW.html
I guess I'll call them tomorrow and see if they've got one in stock.

[2nd.amnd]

Got what was apparently the only available one in the country today. Guess we'll see how it works out.